Tagged: 83rd Legislature

Texas Senators passed a bill late last night 20-10 that would allow abortions only in surgical facilities and further restrict abortion-inducing medications.

Time to crack open your recipe books, food entrepreneurs. A bill signed into law by Governor Perry overhauls regulation of so-called “cottage food businesses” to allow people to sell more products directly to consumers from more places: not just from their homes, but also at farmers markets, festivals, fairs and other events. The law takes effect September 1. 

There are a few qualifications to the law, along with a list of banned foods, so here's an easy to digest breakdown of House Bill 910.

A member of the Texas House of Representatives is calling on his fellow lawmakers to look for ways to pay for the Public Integrity Unit of the Travis County District Attorney’s Office.

Governor Rick Perry used a line-item veto to cut off the Unit’s state funding, citing D.A. Rosemary Lehmberg’s DWI conviction.

It’s all about redrawn political lines these days at the Texas Capitol, and at today’s first hearing of the Senate Redistricting Committee, more questions arose.

But one thing has become clear: Lawmakers will be in Austin at least until mid-June.

Amid all the other items on the agenda, the 83rd session of the Texas Legislature had as its primary task: passing a budget bill. Last Sunday, lawmakers praised the budget deal they'd pass before midnight. State Rep. Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, is the House’s chief budget writer.

"By doing all the good things that are in this budget…we are still able to increase the state budget by a percentage of less than one percent per year with adjusted dollars," Rep. Pitts said.